Vic's Vacant Lot (partially found ESPN/Nickelodeon sports series; 1982-1985)

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VVLTitleCard.png

The title card for Vic's Vacant Lot.

Status: Partially Found

Vic's Vacant Lot (known in full as Honeycomb Presents: Vic's Vacant Lot) was a children's sports TV series that ran on the Entertainment and Sports Network (ESPN) from 1982 to early 1984, and on Nickelodeon until May 1985.

Premise

The show was hosted by tennis instructor and player Vic Braden, mostly known for his accessible approach to tennis instruction.[1] Braden would profile and teach various sports sent into the show by kids, and as the title suggests, the games profiled were designed to be played in a vacant lot.[2]

Some of the games featured were "Steal the Bacon" (sent in by Tracey Farrell of North Plainfield, New Jersey), "Jug Scoop" (sent in by Richard Muse of Ashville, North Carolina), and "Shadow Bike Tag" (sent in by Jill and Adam Fredrick of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania).[2]

If your game was profiled on the show, kids won a BMX Hawk 4 bicycle presented by Honeycomb Cereal (the official sponsor of the show). The kids would also get the title of "Honeycomb Kid of the Week" along with a write-up in their local newspaper.

The show aired for 26 episodes on ESPN,[3] and it is unknown how many episodes Nickelodeon aired or if Nickelodeon aired new episodes at all, though it is most likely the latter. The show also aired at various times throughout the week on ESPN, mostly due to the unpredictable scheduling of sports programming.[4] The show also aired at 6:00 in the morning on Nickelodeon.[2] It is unknown why the show was cancelled.

Availability

Due to the poor scheduling and the show being largely forgotten by the general public, no recordings of the show have been found. It is likely that one of the kids featured on the show did record an episode of the show, though none of these recordings have been located as of the writing of this article. Only a few newspaper mentions from around the time the show aired remain online today.

On May 9th, 2019, YouTube user poparena uploaded a video about Vic's Vacant Lot as apart of his Nick Knacks series, which details every show that aired on Nickelodeon. The video is one of the first mentions of Vic's Vacant Lot online in the present day, besides scattered forum posts and newspaper archives.

On January 3rd, 2022, Archive.org user Chip Cogswelle uploaded a full episode of Vic's Vacant Lot from 1983 in two parts, though this went unnoticed until March 17th, 2022. The episode features games such as "Bicycle Ditch-em" and "Shangai", as well as a segment on leading a team.[5][6]

Gallery

Part one of an episode of Vic's Vacant Lot.

Part two of an episode of Vic's Vacant Lot.

Poparena's first Nick Knacks video on Vic's Vacant Lot.

Poparena's second Nick Knacks video on Vic's Vacant Lot.

See Also

Anthology and Short Series

Bumpers and Promos

Films

Game Shows

Inaugural Series

Live Action

Pilots

Other

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Vic Braden's website with his tennis background and career. Retrieved 11 Apr '21
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Poparena's Nick Knacks video on Vic's Vacant Lot. Retrieved 11 Apr '21
  3. ↑ South Florida SunSentinel article mentioning Vic's Vacant Lot. Retrieved 11 Apr '21
  4. ↑ Lakeland Ledger, Sports Programming, May 29-June 4, 1983. Retrieved 11 Apr '21
  5. ↑ Part one of a full episode of Vic's Vacant Lot. Retrieved 17 Mar '22
  6. ↑ Part two of a full episode of Vic's Vacant Lot. Retrieved 17 Mar '22
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